| (no subject) |
[Jun. 16th, 2008|05:04 pm] |
My dad came for a visit on Saturday and we ended up at two of the state parks later that afternoon. Both parks happen to have towers overlooking the river so of course we had to climb them all and I of course had to take pictures. We were just climbing the last metal tower when it started to sprinkle; as there was no apparent lightening we continued to climb and witnessed a rainbow by the time we got to the top. For those of you who know what the river is supposed to look like, you will see that there is only one sandbar right now! For those of you who don't, go back to my journal to July 26th, 2006 and you will see a major difference in the amount of water in the river.
please click on the photos for a larger view
a close up of the metal tower
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a train coming round the bend
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the one sandbar river
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the rainbow!
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the sky was awesome!
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the tower from afar
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the windmill
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| cranes 2008 |
[May. 27th, 2008|01:48 pm] |
The following photos were taken in March when the sandhill cranes were back for their annual visit. I met Ryan and Jazz in Kearney this day and we did our typical drive around the countryside shooting cranes. I ended up going back to Kearney for Easter and took a couple more photos which, if I continue the pattern I'm on, will prob. not be posted for another 3 months. What can I say, my life is crazy.
Oh, image shack changed their uploading procedures so you can only upload thumbnails but if you would like to see the photo the way it's supposed to be viewed, just click on it.
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| (no subject) |
[May. 27th, 2008|01:27 pm] |
ok, I decided to post this one photo from the second trip out there.
One thing that really surprised me was that the cranes never came as close to us this year as in the past; this was really disappointing. However, my dad pulled the car into a field so I could shoot a small group of 'dancing' cranes; as you can see, we were still pretty far away from them. This is one of the most active photos from that day--we hardly saw any of them jumping so I felt pretty lucky to even see this.
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 5th, 2008|12:31 pm] |
A couple weeks ago Josh was in town for work (SCA) and Ryan, him and I hooked up for a photo shoot. Josh had done some light painting photos in VT and I have been wanting to try it since. This was actually the third time we tried this and it finally worked out! The first time we tried it at the end of August and got eaten up by mosquitoes. The second time we tried it at the beg. of Jan. when it was SO FREAKING COLD and we literally froze our brains! THIS TIME we were inside so we could control everything--light, no bugs, no wind, no cold, etc. It was perfect! Basically we hung a camouflage blanket (mine of course) for a background (and to cover up some of the boxes in the store room) and used glow sticks to 'draw'. Here are some of the photos that turned out well.
This was taken outside before we began--had to do something while waiting for the store to be closed.
Ryan pretending to cut Josh's super long hair
Photo taken by Josh
Photo taken by Josh
Photo taken by Ryan. That's me!
Ryan redid this particular image many many times and it obviously paid off.
My coffee cup--not the best but it's pretty hard to draw something like this when you can't see your lines!
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 9th, 2008|03:06 pm] |
The latest from Ryan, Josh's and my photo excursion we had on the 1st.
Josh and I started out early (Ryan has trouble getting out of bed! ok, it's b/c he works late) at a local park where all the gates to the paths were locked. So, we braved the cold cold wind and took a few shots here and there--those of mine were boring so here's one of us before we left.
One of the abandoned buildings out in the middle of nowhere
Josh and his sweet long curly hair
Since it was the first and everything was closed (hence no witnesses) we all ended up in the men's bathroom at the train depot for a group shot.
At the train depot before I ended up being more model then photographer
Here is one of two shots I think Josh took (with my camera) and it shows where I was standing and how important it was that no one was down there besides us. I, of course, had to play with the photo in photoshop--cropped, black and white, exaggerated shadows and highlights.
The following shots were taken Sunday of the newest member of our family (my sister and her husband's puppy). His name is Mulligan and he is a CUTIE!
My sister rewarding him for going potty outside
He loved to pick up leaves and sticks while going for a walk.
He loves this crazy monkey!
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 19th, 2007|03:20 pm] |
okay, as usual, I've been slackin so here's what's been going on for the last couple weeks.
a slow snow/ice day at work. =) most of the time it was raining so hard I didn't feel safe taking the camera outside--that left taking goofy pics of us inside the store.
one of the few pics I actually took outside
a little photography fun in the car on our way to my sis' graduation. no, we weren't supposed to be driving--the parents were. We had experienced a difficult drive up there the nite before so it was nice to have someone else deal w/ the weather while we screwed around.
the happy graduate! I am so so proud of her!!! congrats sis!!
my sis and bro-in-laws nephew. the poor little guy is teething and nothing can stop him from chewing and drooling or obviously going to town on the pooh bear.
so before my older sis cut the cake I saw her w/ the knife, in front of the window, so I had to take a killer shot. =)
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 21st, 2007|03:44 pm] |
one last Halloween image taken before the costume and makeup came off.
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 21st, 2007|03:27 pm] |
A couple weeks ago we went back to the 'ol country to celebrate an early Thanksgiving. The little sis was going hunting and eventually shot a nice buck the following weekend.
While they were hunting, our job was to 'scare something up' behind the house hoping the deer would run into the pasture where my sis and dad's stand was. My older sis took us way way way out in the cornfield to circle around.
an old barn in the trees
the flies are quite abundant out there so my dad has fly paper in the garage. this is one of the fly tapes which was FULL and while I was shooting this they were buzzing and flying around my head. Nasty!
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 6th, 2007|10:47 am] |
A couple weeks ago, the hubby and I took a little trip to a National Wildlife Refuge area in the northwestern part of Iowa. When we first arrived there, I was driving into the refuge, stopped the car and backed up b/c I thought I saw a young deer and some turkeys hanging out together. I was right so he snapped a couple photos.
There are turkeys all over up there. As he was taking this photo I was watching two of them cross the road right behind the car. Too bad there was so much brush or it could've been a clearer shot.
I am not a big grasshopper fan but this was just comical. We found this little viewing area that looked quite photogenic and as we were walking up to it these two were on a nearby post. What's funny is that a couple inches down the post another grasshopper was watching. Hum....voyeurism in the insect world.
My hubby hates to be a model so he pretty much took the next ones I am in. This little viewing has much more photogenic potential than we had time for so maybe another time.
yes, I know I am weird.
I have no idea what these are but one of the lakes was full of them. We crossed an old wooden (and floating/moving) bridge which was really creepy to get across this lake.
a close-up of one of those plants
and now the carcass-filled lake
one of the few flowering plants at the time
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| happy halloween |
[Nov. 1st, 2007|04:17 pm] |
Halloween is one of my favorite days and for the last couple years, we've made it a fun day at work by dressing up. Last year I ended up buying my costume which wasn't quite as much fun; the first year I came up w/ a respectful french maid costume and this year I found a kimono and dressed up like a geisha.
One of my employees wore the best Freddie mask I have ever seen--she ended up scaring lots of the old customers. Quite hilarious!
Early morning pics of myself before my makeup got all nasty!
A closer shot
Freddie outside in the alley during his photo shoot w/ Ryan who came and took pics at the store of us crazy girls!
I ended up working a 12 hour shift b/c it was so busy and I was short a barista so after we closed up shop, the witch and I went back in the alley for her photo shoot.
the geisha and the witch
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 16th, 2007|01:02 pm] |
these are just a few misc photos that I came across while searching for other photos that I didn't find. anyway, they are more fun than anything. oh, the userpic is from a wedding reception that I was taking pics at just for the fun of it. It was on the back of an alcohol dispenser and I thought it was pretty neat at the time.
recognize this mural from last years posting? same sis just a different pose. I also had a different pose in front of the train......it's too funny though--I was running away from it and it looks really stupid.
taken july 4 at my sis-in-laws; we did some of the sparkler design shots but they didn't turn out as well. I swear all the mosquitoes were surrounding the tripod and it was to hard to concentrate on anything!
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 25th, 2007|12:54 pm] |
a couple weeks ago one of my cousins had a wedding reception at one of the local parks. the actual reception was in a building but before it got dark we had to go outside and take some fun photos with my sis', one of my fav. cousins and one of my fav. aunts.
How many hot women can you cram in a phone booth? we say 6!
(picture taken by Jason, one of my cousins' boyfriends)
I don't know what you are really supposed to do on this contraption but we thought it would make a good set.
(picture taken by Jason)
It was SUPER chilly and after getting those good pictures the other three decided to go inside while we decided there was more fun to be had. These two crawled in a pumpkin thingy.
This is H in the pumpkin thingy!
A's feet and hands in the pumpkin thingy!
H on the jungle gym.
THE TIRE SERIES...............
(photo taken by H)
after the reception I went to my bro-in-laws where he has two hairless cats. The living room was super dark and cats and the flash don't mix well. I will have to go back sometime during the day and just take pictures of them. This one is the youngest of the two (the other one, Bruce, is black) and he does not yet have a name for himself. If you watch him for 5 minutes you'll know that cats CAN have ADHD.
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| the Mr. and Mrs. |
[Sep. 2nd, 2007|05:43 pm] |
here are a couple wedding photos that I ended up taking for Ryan's wedding. (Their photographer ended up bailing at the last minute so it was me and this other lady responsible for the ceremony photos!!) Even though I was super nervous, I think I did pretty well.
HOW CUTE!!!
the Mr. and Mrs.!
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 27th, 2007|04:28 pm] |
here are a few more....
this one was taken at the phone museum where we had VIP treatment from one of our favorite customers who gives tours there. I was able to photograph her in all kinds of areas in the museum; this was taken while she was 'making a call' in one of the old telephone booths.
she was soaked by the end of shooting at the fountain
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| a little preview |
[Aug. 22nd, 2007|09:21 am] |
A month or two ago, one of my employees asked me if I would take her senior pics for her. I agreed but said we needed to take them soon so that if she didn't like them, she could have a professional do them. =) We took them on Friday and yesterday I spent 3.5 hours before work going through some and now I am going to just post a few that I like; obviously, she had lots of poses so not all of them are senior picture appropriate. You might be able to tell from some of the photos that she's one of those fun-loving, ready-to-do-anything crazy girls and we had a blast!!
I had asked her to bring an umbrella and she happened to have a clear one--awesome!; it was supposed to rain that day and it never did but she still had fun w/ it!
these first two were taken in our 'studio' in the back room of the store--she loves coffee and wanted the theme in some of her photos so we used the burlap sacks as a background. We may do these shots over outside--damn shadows. I said I wasn't a pro.
down at the train station in front of the little fountain.
in front of the tracks
behind the store in the alley--we love that old railing but for some reason I couldn't get these shots to work. I only picked out two that I liked and I'm not too sure of them. here's one
there were too many people at the train station so she couldn't get into the water like she wanted. These were taken at the fountain across the street from the sunken gardens.
kinda sassy. there are better fountain ones I will have to post later.
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| bird crazy! |
[Jul. 13th, 2007|05:06 pm] |
last fri. I spent a couple hours at the zoo wandering around taking pictures. here are a few from the first part of my trip.
this is one famous emu. I think it was less than a year ago that it was on the front page of the newspaper (maybe the front page of the LOCAL section--I can't remember for sure--with that paper, you never know!) b/c the zoo was spending some absurd amount of money on it for EYE SURGERY. Well, as we can see, the money was well spent as he's still hanging out at the zoo and creeping people out w/ his milky eye.
This is one sweet bird.
Ok, when I shot this I thought it was something else. Now I am not so sure but I do love his dreads!
These little shorebirds were busy cleaning themselves under their wings, then poking their heads out, then cleaning themselves some more. It's hard to tell from this angle but they have little red, beady eyes.
these macaws are so pretty!
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| a 4-legged customer? |
[Jul. 13th, 2007|11:37 am] |
This is one of those rare times where I am just going to journal instead of posting pictures. I sure wish I had a photo to accompany the story but I usually do not have our camera with me at work so you're all going to have to take my word for it.
About a month ago, I was walking up to the front door to open the store (so it's 630am) and I saw one of our regular customers pulling into the parking lot real slow. As I opened the front door to grab the newspapers, she honked at me. So I wave, and back into the store, my mind on all the other things I had to do to get ready for the day. She honked again and then pointed out her driver's window towards the southwest side of the center. Considering she hadn't gotten out of her car and was just honking at me, I cautiously opened the front door again and looked where she was pointing. To my surprise, it was a deer! Now, that does not sound TOO crazy; it WAS crazy that the deer was jumping into the windows of the adjacent store fronts--I'm talking about it's face and front legs smashing into the windows. I stood there in shock. I didn't know what in the world to do! As I was standing there, he came towards me and as I slipped back into the store he jumped at MY windows right under the open sign--the windows were rattling so much I thought he was going to break in, and run wild in my store. You can imagine all the damage that would have done with our glass tables and tons of retail sitting around! So, I run up to our front counter, grab the phone, and call animal control. OF COURSE, NO ONE ANSWERED! By that time, the deer had moved back down to the adjacent stores again so the regular customer had walked up to our front door and another regular customer had met her up there too. I go outside, and the first customer asks me how long the deer has been at the shopping center. I didn't know because I had arrived at 545am and there was NOT a deer in the parking lot. I proceed to tell them I had called animal control and gotten their answering machine.
Then I said, "who do I call???? 911????"
At the same time, they both replied "YES!!!!!!"
SO, for the first time ever, I dial 911.
When the operator answers and asks what my emergency is, I was still in shock and tried to reply when the one customer says "There's a deer trying to break into my store!" So, I repeat that to the 911 operator. LOL! (hey, this was BEFORE my normal amount of coffee okay?)
He says, "okay, where are you located?"
I give him our address and he says "oh, okay, that's the deer that just left the hospital [located across the street]."
I say, "okay, are you going to send someone out???"
He says, "no, just leave it alone, he'll leave on his own. The more you approach him, the more he'll spook so it's best just to let him be."
I said, "uh, thanks", and hung up.
I repeat what the operator says to the two customers.
I say, "so what are they going to do if I call back in 2 minutes and tell them that there is a deer that crashed through my windows and is destroying my store. Just let him be??????????????"
At this point I am hoping my insurance covers destruction of property by crazed animals!
So, the three of us are still standing outside, watching the deer freak out on the windows. We were just trying to decide if one of us should call or go to the nearby fire department and 'grab some guys' when all of a sudden the deer turns around. Directly across the street to the southeast is a little park with lots of TREES. He obviously recognizes it as somewhere he wants to be, and takes off across the parking lot. Well, that's fine except that he is picking up speed and he has to cross one of the busier streets where people drive extra fast (okay, so I AM speaking from experience but it's curvy and one naturally picks up speed around the curves =) yep, that's what I'll say if I ever get pulled over right there.
Anyway, we turn and see that there is a white car coming down the street, we look at the deer and he's at full speed now, just trekking across the parking lot. The tension builds as we look back at the car, it's still coming full speed around the curve, the deer is almost at the edge of the parking lot, getting ready to jump. Just as the car arrives right there, the deer jumps and lands in the street, the driver sees it and SLAMS on his or her brakes and the deer bounds across the street. I think we all let out a collective sigh of relief. WOW!
The one customer says "WHOA! If that person turns into the parking lot, I am buying him or her a drink!"
But the driver kept going (probably WIDE AWAKE NOW and wondering if he or she needs to go back home for a change of clothes) and we all went into the store for MUCH needed coffee and a wild story to share.
Of course, after seeing disaster being averted, one thinks about other possibilities. Such as, what the 911 operator would say if I had called back and said the deer just ran into an oncoming car and the driver was seriously injured. I mean, I understand they can't just go shooting deer all over the city but you got to wonder.
Oh, of course the story was so bizarre some people looked a little reluctant to believe it; I just directed them to our front windows under the open sign where there were slobbery smears from the deer's nose and tongue and hoof marks from the front legs. The evidence was up there for about 2 weeks till the window cleaning guy came and wiped them away--I thought leaving them up there till he came was a nice tribute. However, for those of you who may still be reluctant, stop in some time and we'll walk down to the empty bays with the glass windows where the deer beat against them the most because unless someone else took care of it, his marks are still there.
As a side note: my fear of the deer crashing through the store windows is not unfounded. A couple months after the previous owners opened the coffee shop, a deer broke through the windows of the tanning salon and destroyed EVERYTHING while it was trying to find a way out.
One more side note: everyone we told kept thinking that the deer saw his own reflection in the glass and he was trying to get to it. ????????????? Deer recognize self-image???? hummmmmmmmmm.......... One person said, (and this I can believe), he probably saw the reflection of the trees and was trying to get to those. This sounds way more reasonable as deer do not 'try to get to each other or themselves by ramming at each other (and no, he did not have antlers).'
[My employees were SHOCKED that it had happened and one of them was SURE the deer needed caffeine and would return that afternoon when she was working with red hate-filled eyes and her little naughty puppy on its back. (It's hilarious because her super cute dog chews the crotches out of her and her sisters' underwear). lol Anyway, she figured they would come tearing through the parking lot and crash through the windows, DEMANDING coffee this time. I told her to make sure to accept cash only. No just kidding, she has one goofy imagination.] =)
Anyway, after sharing the story with sone of the customers who knows I hunt deer, one asked if we were having venison for the next couple weeks for lunch. (not THIS time). Another asked me if the first thing I thought was, DANG IT! why hadn't I brought our rifle with me that day!!!! Uh, no, not only would that be a bad idea to go shooting up the center where I own a business but it wouldn't be a good thing to have at work. I told my hubby later that day that if it would've broken into the store and run wild, I don't know what I would've done. He said, run out the back door. I said, oh, I was thinking more like defending myself and all my stuff. who knows, I prob would've run knowing the damage their hooves can do. Oh, well, hopefully it doesn't happen again for another 10 years. =) |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 29th, 2007|08:14 pm] |
I think this is part II of our photo trip in April.
we ended up at holmes a couple hours before sunset. there were actually two herons but we were able to get closest to this one.
this shot of my feet is mostly for Ryan who REALLY likes feet if you know what I mean ;)
no, just kidding, he does not have a foot fetish. He just teases me about taking foot shots--I just look down more. anyway, taken through the railing adds a bit to this one
The following are a series of sunset shots taken over the half hour. I didn't take quite as many as the boys b/c for some reason the bugs thought I tasted real good that nite.
Josh and his hair silhouetted against the sunset
shoot out
=)
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| (no subject) |
[May. 25th, 2007|01:19 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | linkin park minutes to midnight | ] |
Once again it has taken me a long time to post photos. Of course, in my defense, the store robbed me of my time--I went two weeks w/o a day off; what a CHALLENGE! However, I survived w/o too many freak-out moments so kudos to me =)
At the end of April Josh came back for almost a week long visit--time sure went fast but I got to see him almost every day so no complaints here. The first nite he was back him, Ryan, Rob and I went to Hot Fuzz--an exceptionally hilarious movie! I highly reccommend it to everyone who needs a good laugh.
Saturday morning I treated Ryan and Josh to waffles at the store (I had to be at the store working a couple hours so I forced them to be there too) and then the three of us had an eventful day of shooting. We started out at Pioneers Park, then headed north of town out in the stix, and ended up photoing the sunset at Holmes Lake. It was a blast like always! I ended up with some great photos and scored w/ a couple videos of the two of them--I have promised them that the videos will never be seen by anyone (okay, Rob had the pleasure but it stops there unless they want to show others). As you will see from the photos, I sat in the backseat the whole day we drove around and I think they sometimes forgot about me being back there--esp. w/ a camera that can take movies. =) I will prob. be forced to sit shotgun from now on but it was well worth it. Ooohh, maybe I PLANNED it that way.
Anyway, here are just a few photos--I realized after sending some in to get blown up to 11x14s that I had used a wrong setting on the camera and will never be able to enlarge any photos taken this day to a size bigger than 4x6. =( A lesson learned. One more note, as Josh and Ryan posted GREAT photos of birds I'm not even going there so these are a little different than what they have.
Ryan posing on a very scary bridge at Pioneers Park--when the boys (yeah, boys!) saw I was nervous about being on the bridge they had to make it SWAY!
WOW! what balance! Sometimes Josh will do ANYTHING for a great shot!
The visitors center at the park
My view all day from the back seat. Check out the awesome curly hair!
Ryan was taking random country roads (as usual) and we happened upon this barn which I had to take a second look at b/c I took a b/w photo of this exact barn w/ haybales last year (it's hanging up in my store). The colors in this are amazing!
okay, that's it for now. I'll prob be drawing this day out for 2 or 3 more parts as these are only from the first part of our day and I am out of time. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 4th, 2007|04:14 pm] |
Crane Shooting 2007 Part II.2
As I was going through old photos looking for the best ones to enlarge, I came across this one that I had already prepared to post but missed it.
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rifling's journal
